Miscellaneous

Coach having fun helping players learn
pass defense. 

Our last post featured lots of smiling Outlaws.  It got me thinking that the players, coaches, and fans are really nice people.  There's a friendly spirit in the practices this season.  No yelling.  Lots of encouraging when an effort is good.  Lots of cheering when something good happens.

This isn't new.  I attribute much of the positive spirit to Lily.  She is serious about the team and does what general managers have to do to maintain order.  But she genuinely loves the game and genuinely loves the players. 

It is easy to get happy pictures.  Like the photo of coach Lance. 

Kids are welcome. 

Some photos from practice last Saturday reflect this positive spirit.  I should know names by now, especially the name of the little girl who has been the subject of so many photos.  The young lady with her is MaryLou Spence, a photographer and team supporter for several years.  The Outlaws are a team where you can be comfortable having your children visiting practices.  And games. 

In the set position.  He's about to attempt to receive a
forward pass.  He'll never play in an Outlaws game but
he can participate in practices.

The boy - I heard his name but forgot it - is son to Diedra Holland.  He comes to practice with her.  He is comfortable with the team and the team is comfortable having him. 

He even gets involved in the practices.  Listens to the coaching.  Tries his hand at receiving passes.  Discovers is it more difficult than it looks.

Another smiling face.  Good effort at a ball that was
too tall.  Catching the ball isn't as easy as it looks.

Catching the ball is difficult for the players, too.  But with every practice they get better at it.  The style of coaching that encourages and builds up the players seems to be effective.

Anticipation.  She going to catch it.  Trust me.

You want to bet she's going to catch that ball?  Passing and receiving - I've talked about both in previous posts.  It takes practice.  In the few weeks I've been watching this season, the players have been getting better. 

Got it.  Now have to keep it.  Footballs are shaped funny. 
Catching them isn't so easy as it looks from the stands.

Catching is a little more challenging when the ball sails over your head.  Time to see how high can you jump.

She's leaping high.  You can tell first because she's higher than than the
player in the foreground. 

I think this is an incomplete pass.  I like the action, two player leaping high. 

Two athletes battling for the ball.  I started being impressed by the leaping.  Then got
distracted by noticing the socks.  Sometimes I get bored at practices.  This shouldn't
have been one of those times.  Well, actually, I didn't notice the socks until I
was doing this post.

This posting is titled miscellaneous because I don't have a clear purpose today.  I selected some photos I like and posted them to see if you like them too.  The leaping high photos are especially cool, in my opinion.  But my mind wanders.  I noticed one of the player leaping was wearing fancy socks, the other wasn't.  That reminded me of my recent study of fashion in football.  I had featured Tiffany's socks.  I'm now routinely photographing socks at practice.  The ones below struck me as very fancy.  What do you think?  Maybe the Outlaws should change their uniforms to include socks like these.  They could change the name of the team, from Outlaws to Fancy Socks?

The Outlaws practices - lots of smiles and laughs.  Kids welcome and even get involved in the drills.  We have an informal fashion contest going on; maybe someday we'll give an award to the fanciest socks.    Football is serious and there's serious work going on .  But football is fun and the Outlaws are having fun.